the Roman invasion
by paulinus maximus
Summary: the four nations have bled each other dry for nearly a century with no clear winner in sight until a mysterious army appears from beyond the seas no one knows why the men are here but what they all know is that nothing will ever be the same again


the roman invasion

**43AD**

At first it seemed that the invasion would go off without any difficulty the fleet had gathered and the daunting logistical problems had been fixed but then fate intervened. A rumor began to spread that when they reached Britannia they would face terrible magic and fearsome beast controlled by the druids that supposedly infested the island. So the centurions were kept busy by trying to dissuade the men from their superstitions usually with a vitus in hand. However it had little effect and the army was refusing to budge from their base at banonia finally the exasperated commander of the invasion force Aulus platius wrote to the emperor about their troubles. The emperor decided to send his secretary narcissus a freedman to address the troops.

"What do you think he's going to say?" Sextus dominitius turned toward the man who had asked the question a particularly dumb legionary by the name of galerius. The centurion shook his head and started to walk towards the man who now looked quite terrified "did you speak?" the question was whispered but it had the desired effect because galerius was positively shaking "n-n-no ce-ce-centurion." Sextus flashed a brilliant smile "well galerius glad we could clear that up" and without the smile clearing his face brought his fist full on into the man's stomach, galerius doubled over "you stupid piece of _cac_ tacete!"* galerius to his credit managed to get back up to the position of intente "ye-yes centurion" he said through clenched teeth with that sextus went back to his eloted position in the formation. The men had to wait for nearly an hour before narcissus decided to grace the army with his presence however before the ex slave could get a word out someone called out "hooray for the saturnalia!"* Sextus turned around to see who had said it and to his relief realised it must of been someone from another legion because the men of the 2nd Augusta were stonefaced. However the cry was repeated by even more men and soon a chorus of voices including some from the second drowned out whatever narcissus was about to say so face red from anger and embarrassment the imperial toady made a hasty retreat. Sextus himself was amused but he couldn't show it so he along with every other centurion in the army went amongst the ranks restoring order finally the men had quieted down to where general plautius himself was able to address the men "soldiers of Rome" he began "you have shamed yourselves" this brought a chorus of groans from the assembled army and platius held his hand for silence "you have refused the commands of your emperor and his representatives to expand the light of Rome to Britannia, you have allowed the exaggerated tales of a few fools to make you refuse the commands of your legates and your general" at this point the men were looking around guiltily and Sextus had to fight back a smile knowing that now the general could ask the men to _walk_ to britain and they would do it to atone for their shame. "However" the general continued "the emporer understands that he is asking much from his legions so he has decided to increase the pay of every man who embarks on this operation!" the men let out a great cheer and this time plautius did nothing to silence them and neither Sextus because he was cheering with them. Now he thought platius could get the men to charge hades.

Titus Vespasian legate* of the 2nd Augusta watched as his men boarded the ships that would take them to Britannia "do you think its true what they say about britannia?" Vespasian shook his head "no Flavius I don't besides aren't you a bit high up to be believing what the rankers say." this prompted a smile from flavius sabinus vespassians older brother and a legion commander in his own right "pax* little brother I was just trying to make conversation." this prompted a grunt from another legate, gnaeus hosidius geta "If it was true don't you think caesar would have mentioned it in his commentaries" Vespasian nodded "exactly my thoughts" Flavius was about to make a reply when a courier appeared after saluting smartly he said "general platius has ordered you to board the ships we will be departing soon" the assembled legates exchanged handshakes and well wishes and then moved towards their separate commands when Vespasian reached his ship he was pleased to see it was ready to embark "my compliments to the captain he said to a nearby sailor "when will we be moving"  
"soon sir" the sailor replied "just waiting for the signal"

Degatorix was angry. He had slipped into gaul to report on the progress of the roman filth readying to pollute his sacred island and it had worked but then some faithless scum had reported him to the romans. At first they were intending to execute him but then after questioning him he let slip that he was a druid. That's when the roman general got a plan. He decided that they would take degatorix with them and knowing the reverence the britons had for druids crucify him in front of the nearest briton army they could find. "and there's nothing I can do about it" he whispered to himself in despair but then he got an idea. An extremely crazy and most likely impossible idea but and idea. when degatorix was young he had spent some time with a warlock who could with extreme concentration make things go away with his mind and after much begging he had agreed to teach degatorix this skill. At first they had tried small things like apples then they would move on to trees and then buldings finally after decades of training the old man brought him to an abandoned village "this is your final test" he said and then motioning towards the village said "make it go away" degatorix did indeed make it go away but it almost killed him and after that brush with death decided never to use his arcane gift again. Untill now.

Sextus was throwing up he had never been on the water before and after this horrid experience didn't want to ever be on it again "having a little trouble" Sextus turned to give whoever said that idiotic comment a mouthful when he was greeted with the most disfigured face he had ever seen. The ear and eye gone the right half a ruined mass of scar tissue it belonged to Quintus verus a twenty year veteran of the legion and also sextuses best friend the two having joined up together "I thought you were with the ninth" Sextus said with a smile on his face "I heard you were commanding a cohort" Quintus returned the smile as best he could with his face the way it was "I was untill I was transferred back to the second and they gave me a new cohort" Sextus was about to ask which one but then his smile got even larger "that's right Sextus I've got the third" sextus was about to congratulate his friend on the fact that he now commanded the cohort that sextuses century was apart of when suddenly out of nowhere there was a blinding light

Sextus pulled himself off the deck "what the fuck was that" quintus asked. Sextus shook his head "I don't know but whatever it was it hit the whole fleet "he then motioned towards the ship next to then where other legionaries were picking themselves up and looking around in a mix of confusion and terror sextus was worried that a spontaneous mutiny might break out but then he heard the cry "land!" he rushed to the bow and stared at an island that apparently just appeared in front of them "this is very bad"

The misgivings shared by Sextus and Quintus apparently wasn't held by general platius because soon a signal flag from his ship gave the order for the invasion force to land after a few hours of searching for a suitable beach the ships managed to unload the 2nd Augusta and 9th Hispania with the 14th gemina and 20th waiting on the ships as a reserve. the two legions immediately sent out cohort sized patrols to gather intelligence

Quintus and his cohort had been marching for a few minutes when one of the scouts he had sent out ahead of the main force came running towards him out of breath "britons right behind me sir!" Quintus could hardly believe his ears. that the savages apparently underestimated the legions enough to get so close to the landing beach of two whole legions infuriated him "how many" he asked "about thirty" Quintus looked at the legionary not sure he heard correctly "thirty!?" the legionary nodded "yes sir I'm certain" Quintus was about to issue orders when the "britons" made their appearance they wore what appeared to be green armor that blended into the surrounding foliage and they had fearsome looking blades that were much longer than the roman gladius but that wasn't what was most troubling to Quintus it appeared that the warriors before them were woman and instead of the blue paint they were told to expect they wore a ghostly white. "Form ranks!" he screamed and was to pleased at how quickly his legionaries got into battle formation the britons however were unfazed and still stood there. Quintus was very confused normally barbarians would come charging, normally they would come in larger groups and normally they weren't woman! "advance!" Quintus commanded "lets see how still they are now" now it seemed the barbarians were concerned and they began giving questioning looks to who Quintus assumed was their commander the woman shot a look of pure hate at the roman's and raised her sword and dropped it with that the woman ran towards the roman line "halt!" Quintus said calmly "fire!" with that the men of the cohort released their javelins on the charging woman at least twenty went down in the first volley the rest coming to a complete halt to tend to their wounded comrades "charge!" quintus screamed it took only a few moments for his men to reach the Britons. Quintus was shocked to see their leader cut down one of his legionaries and then another _well looks like you can use a sword eh bitch_ Quintus ran towards the woman who was currently engaged with another legionary and used the dull point of his blade to knock her out "were going to need her for questioning" he said to the legionary who had a rather anti climatic end to his duel

all along the island hundreds of more skirmishes like the one Quintus experienced took place with shocked romans coming face to face with the apparently all female warriors for no man was found among the bodies and although the romans defeated all the groups they encountered losses were heavy and By the end of the day two hundred romans were dead.

platius looked at the man before him with a cold gaze "what did you say?" the merchant a fat greek by the name of pelios was unfazed "this is not Britannia general" platius let out a harsh laugh "then what is it!" the greek shrugged "the people i've encountered in the villages look like the han traders I've seen in the east their language sounds like it also" platius was quickly nearing the end of his patience "so you can speak to the prisoners we've captured?" the greek gave another shrug "yes general I could but that would take time and would cause me to lose money to the other traders. After all time means everything in our profession" platius was disgusted but saw no other alternative and with great reluctance said "I'm sure we can reimburse you" the merchant let out a delighted squeal that matched his piginess and left the praetorium to talk to the prisoners

that night under the cover of darkness two men manged to leave the island they had been sent their by their masters to report on the strange group of woman warriors there and to learn if they would do anything to stop their nations expansion now they had a much more troubling report to give one that could change everything

**please review and tell me what you think**

*** tacete is the latin equivalent of shut the fuck up**  
*** saturnalia was a roman holiday that included allowing slaves to dress as citizens and gave them some small freedoms **  
*** pax is the latin word for peace**  
**A legate commands a legion of 5,000 men**  
**A cohort has 500 men in it it is commanded by a pilus prior [which is the most senior centurion in the cohort]**  
**a century has 80 men in it and is commanded by a centurion **


End file.
